So this week, we tried to figure out what would have to be moved hither or yon to make it easier for the auditors to do what they have to do. 

Truth is, we honestly don’t have a clue.

Chris moved some things around the basement in a desultory kind of way.  I put clothes away.  We put all the wrapped Christmas presents on a table in the coffee room, and packed up the boxes that we have to mail.  But other than that, who knows what has to be done?

Since Turning Tide is going to be a TV star, we want it to look pretty, too.  So we did a little bit of decorating, but we didn’t want to do much in case the wind thing knocks stuff over.

What is the etiquette of an energy audit, anyway?  Do I offer coffee or tea or hot cocoa?  Christmas cookies?  Or do I get the heck out of the way and let them get on with it?

I guess, by this morning, I’ll find out.

And then I can inform you about what to do during your own energy audits.

It was jolly cold this weekend, and windy, and I largely stayed inside the living room with Paco the Parrot and Rudie the Dog.  The cats seemed to be happy under the down comforters upstairs, but Paco needs it warmer than we keep the rest of the house.  We lost power twice.

I wrote Christmas cards, which was on My Christmas List of things to do this weekend.  I have a Seasonal List ... honestly.  First weekend of December, Cards and Mailings.  Second weekend, Decorating, including the Tree.  Third weekend, Baking.  If I am not done by the last weekend before Christmas, I am in serious trouble.  That is the weekend I Shop for Christmas Lunch and Boxing Day, which is our only big party of the year.  In case I haven’t mentioned it, you’re all invited ... we’re doing North African cuisine.  Let me know if you are planning to come ... you know where to find me.
Interspersed among all these regular things are irregular things ... music concerts to attend, people to pick up from airports and train stations, and so on.  On Saturday, I toddled over to the Woolwich Historical Society and did a Children’s Hour with the kids, who had come to make stockings for their dogs and cats and horses.  In point of fact, I was really only prepared for dogs and cats, but the kid with the stuffed horse was willing to accept that a little cat ball was an apple, so we were good.

Then I bought some stockings and glittered them.  I made ten little ones for the office, and one for my Aunt Sue, which unfortunately ran ... I have to make another one ... and one for Paco and Rudie each. 
At some point, I have to go back to the Historical Society and get the rest of our stockings, which were part of a display during the open house, as was our Nutcracker.

On Sunday afternoon, we brought everything not frozen to the ground into the root cellar in anticipation of the storm, including our lawnmower and beach chairs.  Somehow, we once again left the hose out to freeze, and so it shall remain beneath the snow until spring. 

We just had to do some regular, weekly shopping at Shaws, but of course everyone in town was convinced the Four Horsemen were tethered in the parking lot, so instead of getting in and out in twenty minutes, it took the better part of an hour to get some basic provisions.  When you stand in line that long, you tend to send one or the other person back into the store to pick up things you don’t actually need, like microwave popcorn and sparkling apple cider. 

When we got home, I telephoned my aunt while making Chicken Stew, and then we snuggled up in the livingroom with our chicken and dunklings, watching a completely forgettable episode of Nature during pledge week on MPBN.  (I think there ought to be a way for current members to bypass the pledge drive drivel, don’t you?) So many weekends end thusly.  But with our audit work, such as it was, behind us, and a spectacular winter storm to look forward to, the best way to end the weekend was in the dark, quiet cottage, with the battery-operated candles blazing from every window, and a decent chicken dinner on our trays.

By this time next week, we’ll have a rational idea what is going to be necessary to make Turning Tide a Green Cottage.  And then the fun will truly start.